Moneyball Wow and Church Radar

In his book Moneyball, Michael Lewis wrote about how baseball scouts and managers were wrong about what makes a great baseball player. They argued about it and invested millions in trying to understand it. They used the wrong radar, they looked for the wrong “Wow” factor of what makes the best player. When statistics taught a few teams what the real Wow was, the balance of power shifted. I pay attention to that information.

Do you know what the real Wow is for authentic and effective congregational mission? Consider the Gospel story recorded in Mark when people appeared like walking trees to a blind man healed by Jesus.

Mark's rapid-fire, cascading, accounts of Jesus' actions included the feeding of thousands of hungry people. That's good, but Jesus wanted more than a full belly for his team of disciples. Sure, they ate with the crowd that afternoon, but after lunch, Jesus quizzed, “And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?” “Seven.” He said, “Do you still not get it?” Just like us, we thought the Wow factor was in the miraculous feeding, but Jesus wanted his team to understand the leftovers. The outcomes. The Wow was in the leftovers.

Jesus met a blind man and continued to heal him. The outcomes of the miracle were amazing. A person who knew only darkness saw light. This healing experience was not over. He saw people, but the people appeared to be upside down. The Wow was yet to come. If the blind man was in a hurry, if a little was enough, if getting by a bit better was sufficient, he would have walked away happy to see "any" light at all. Jesus knew the Wow was yet to come. As if Jesus said, "Wait, we can do better than this." Touching the man's eyes, full sight was restored.